Swipe, click, book or buy has become a way of life for most of us now. But what lies behind this hassle-free world of e-commerce and utility apps? Vandana Vasudevan’s book OTP Please! dives behind the bustling digital storefronts that have brought convenience and instant gratification for millions of us.
It’s a fascinating exploration of the world of gig workers, internet retailers, service providers and new age consumers. What makes it especially interesting is the way Vasudevan, a development sector researcher, has structured this exploration. Instead of blandly sectioning it as customers, workers and sellers, she takes the unusual tack of classifying the chapters according to the emotions that all the actors who make up the online marketplace feel. So the book is divided into sections titled pleasure, guilt, gratitude, anger, freedom, oppression, anxiety, isolation and courage.
That brilliant start sets the warm empathetic tone for the book, which is based on meticulous research. Vasudevan partnered with Janpahal, an NGO that surveyed over 5,000 gig workers to understand their lives and issues. Beyond the survey, she has travelled extensively through India, and reached out to people in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal to find out their interactions with a bouquet of apps that governs modern life. “It is apparent that a socio-economic shift is underway in how we buy, eat, move, work and sell owing to technological advancements,” says Vasudevan.
Stories galore
The hundreds of stories that Vasudevan recounts in the book – whether of a bathroom, kitchen and chimney cleaner from Urban Company in Hyderabad, the food delivery person from Swiggy in Kanyakumari, the cab driver from Pathao in Kathmandu, a woman software engineer in Bengaluru who uses an Uber at night, a 29-year old consumer in Karachi who uses Food Panda to order chicken biryani to satisfy a craving even though there is dinner cooked at home – give glimpses of the various emotions ranging from gratitude for having a job, anger at the exploitation, anxiety about using the app and pleasure that the convenience affords.
The guilt chapter sounds all close to home, as it looks into the mindless ordering culture, the feelings of inadequacy of a mother who feels a pang when her children keep getting food from outside (is my cooking not good enough?), the messed up Circadian rhythms thanks to the binge watching on OTT and so on.
The oppression chapter is not just about the exploitation of gig workers but also the tyranny of the algorithm, the frustrations of sellers who are bewildered by the workings of Amazon and the small restaurant’s complaints about the high commissions charged by the food tech platform.
Cohesive account
The consumer and gig worker stories are interspersed with nuggets of insights and data from reports from think tanks and journals, from people like Kishore Biyani and Riyaz Amlani, from B-School professors, and from Reddit threads. There is a deluge of information in the book, but it is all woven together beautifully so that it doesn’t overwhelm. It’s not at all easy to tie together so many different stories and diverse threads but Vasudevan manages to knit it all cohesively. However, it’s a book that has to be read slowly.
Finally, the concluding chapter looks at the regulation of app-based services and the internet economy. It also looks into issues like sustainability, gender inclusivity (why is it always a delivery “boy” ), technology going awry, and whether gig work is the best deployment of a young person’s ability. Clearly it is not – a delivery person’s job is usually a stop-gap arrangement till he or she finds other options, but often there are no other options available.
It’s a book that really makes you think about many issues – among them overconsumption, health and lifestyle, work ethics, and business models. In the author bio, it says Vasudevan, despite her serious pursuits, is paranoid about being boring and hence strives to be entertaining. Well, the book actually manages to be that – a serious subject told very entertainingly.
Check the book out on amazon.
Title: OTP Please: Online Buyers, Sellers and Gig Workers in South Asia
Author: Vandana Vasudevan
Published on November 30, 2025
